Large-scale sequence analysis of genomic DNA is central to understanding a wide range of biological phenomena related to states of health and disease both in humans and in many economically important plants and animals, e.g., Collins et al (2003), Nature, 422: 835-847; Service, Science, 311: 1544-1546 (2006); Hirschhorn et al (2005), Nature Reviews Genetics, 6: 95-108; National Cancer Institute, Report of Working Group on Biomedical Technology, “Recommendation for a Human Cancer Genome Project,” (February, 2005); Tringe et al (2005), Nature Reviews Genetics, 6: 805-814. The need for low-cost high-throughput sequencing and re-sequencing has led to the development of several new approaches that employ parallel analysis of many target DNA fragments simultaneously, e.g., Use of water/buffer-in-oil emulsions to carry out enzymatic reactions is well known in the art, particularly carrying out PCRs, e.g., as disclosed by Drmanac et al., Scienta Yugoslavica, 16(1-2): 97-107 (1990), Margulies et al, Nature, 437: 376-380 (2005); Margulies et al, Nature, 437: 376-380 (2005); Shendure et al (2005), Science, 309: 1728-1732; Metzker (2005), Genome Research, 15: 1767-1776; Shendure et al (2004), Nature Reviews Genetics, 5: 335-344; Lapidus et al, U.S. patent publication US 2006/0024711; Drmanac et al, U.S. patent publication US 2005/0191656; Brenner et al, Nature Biotechnology, 18: 630-634 (2000); and the like.
Such approaches reflect a variety of solutions for increasing target polynucleotide density in planar arrays and for obtaining increasing amounts of sequence information within each cycle of a particular sequence detection chemistry. Most of these new approaches are restricted to determining a few tens of nucleotides before signals become significantly degraded, thereby placing a limit on overall sequencing efficiency.
Another limitation of traditional high-throughput sequencing techniques is that arrays with a high density of single molecules often suffer from a poor signal to noise ratio, due to overlap of signals between different molecules. Most traditional sequencing techniques are not effective in the analysis of arrays of single molecules, because the signal associated with single molecules are often not intense enough to overcome noise inherent in such systems.
In view of such limitations, it would be advantageous for the field if arrays could be designed to strengthen the signals associated with single polynucleotide molecules disposed on such arrays.